Chapter 20:New Frontier/Great Society

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Chapter 20New Frontier/Great Society
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1960 Election
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• In 1960, the country was enjoying a period of
  relative prosperity. With the exception of the
  civil rights movement, domestic turbulence was
  low, but the intensity of the cold war seemed to
  be growing. Fidel Castro came to power in Cuba in
  1959, and installed a communist regime 90 miles
  away from Florida. In May 1960, an American U-2
  spy plane was shot down inside the Soviet Union.

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• The Democratic nominee, Massachusetts senator
  John F. Kennedy, promised active leadership to
  get America moving again. His opponent, Vice
  President Richard Nixon, hoped to ride Ikes
  coattails. Both candidates had similar political
  positions, but two factors favored Kennedy
  television and civil rights. In the fall of 1960
  there were several televised debates between the
  presidential candidates.

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• On September 26, 1960, 70 million viewers watched
  Nixon and Kennedy, two articulate and
  knowledgeable candidates, debating the issues of
  the day (this was the first televised debate in
  history). Nixon, a foreign policy expert, hoped
  the debates would show Kennedys inexperience.
  He had been ill and was underweight and
  haggard-looking. He looked pasty, white, and
  sweaty.

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• Kennedy though, had been coached by television
  producers and he looked and spoke better than
  Nixon. Kennedys success in the debate launched a
  new era in American politics the television age.
  People ignored the messages that were given in
  these debates, people who listened to the debates
  on the radio agreed that Nixon won, and placed
  more stock in what they saw.

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• A second major event in the campaign took place
  in Atlanta, Georgia. In October 1960 Martin
  Luther King Jr. was arrested during a protest.
  Although the other protesters were released, King
  was sentenced to months of hard labor (for
  basically a traffic violation). Ike refused to
  intervene and Nixon took no public stance. The
  Kennedys talked the judge into releasing King
  with bail.

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• This event garnered Kennedy substantial Black
  support and helped Kennedy in this very tight
  race.

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• In the end this was the closest election since
  1884 Kennedy won by fewer than 119,000 votes
  (less than one voter per precinct). His
  inauguration set the tone for a new era at the
  White House, one of grace, elegance, and wit.
  Kennedys speech inspired hope, commitment, and
  sacrifice.

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Camelot
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• During his term Kennedy and his young wife,
  Jacqueline (who captivated the nation with her
  eye for fashion), invited many artists and
  celebrities to the White House. In addition,
  Kennedy was often on television. The press loved
  his charm and wit and helped bolster his image.
  The first family fascinated the public.
  Newspapers and magazines filled their pages with
  photos of the Kennedy family.

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• JFKs advisors were called the best and the
  brightest. They included McGeorge Bundy, a
  Harvard University dean for national security
  advisor Robert McNamara, president of Ford
  Motor, as secretary of defense Dean Rusk,
  president of the Rockefeller Foundation, as
  secretary of state. His most trusted advisor was
  his brother, Robert Kennedy whom he appointed
  attorney general.

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Flexible Response
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• President John F. Kennedy ushered in the era of
  "flexible response" in 1961, deciding that Ikes
  Brinkmanship and threat of massive nuclear
  retaliation to deter the Soviets had limited
  practical use, but that the possibility of
  smaller brush-fire wars had increased. The idea
  theoretically resulted in more flexible forces
  and an army that took full advantage of new
  equipment, in particular new tanks, armored
  personnel carriers, and helicopters.

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• Kennedy also had an elite branch of the army
  created, the Special Forces (or Green Berets).
  They were to develop a new style of warfare to
  deal with these brush-fire type conflicts. At
  the same time Kennedy tripled the overall nuclear
  capabilities of the U.S. The U.S. was being
  prepared to fight small-scale conflicts and still
  keep the nuclear balance with the Soviets.

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Cuba (1959)
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• In 1959 Fidel Castros guerilla movement toppled
  Cubas dictator Batista. He declared that he
  would eliminate poverty, inequality, and
  dictatorship in Cuba. Castro's victory in Cuba
  was welcomed with remarkable unanimity in all the
  free countries of Latin America. He declared
  that free elections will be held as soon as
  possible. The U.S. was suspicious of Castro, but
  recognized his government.

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• After the Revolution Fidel Castro, Dwight
  Eisenhower issued a statement saying he hoped
  "that the people of that friendly country, . . .
  so close to us in geography and sentiment," could
  "through freedom find peace stability, and
  progress."
• The era of good feelings lasted less than a week.
  

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• Castros government then seized three American
  and British oil refineries, broke up commercial
  farms into communes that would be worked by
  formerly landless peasants, and seized foreign
  (mostly American) sugar plantations. In response
  Congress erected trade barriers against Cuban
  sugar. Castro turned to the Soviets for aid and
  repressed those who disagreed with him
  politically. About 10 of Cubans fled to the U.S.

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Castro embraces Communism
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• The U.S. now saw Castro as another tyrant who had
  replaced a dictatorship with another
  dictatorship. A counter-revolutionary movement
  of Cubans in Miami, Florida started to rise. In
  March 1960 Ike gave the CIA permission to
  secretly train those Cuban exiles for an invasion
  of Cuba which would launch an uprising to
  overthrow Castro. After JFK is inaugurated he
  finds out about the plan.

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The Bay of Pigs
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• Although JFK had doubts about the plan he
  approved the mission, just six days after taking
  office. On April 17, 1961 about 1500 Cuban
  exiles landed at the Bay of Pigs. Nothing went
  as it was planned air strikes had failed to
  knock out the Cuban air force, the advance unit
  never reached shore, and finally 25,000 Cuban
  troops (supported by Soviet tanks and jets) were
  waiting for them.

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• The exiles fought for a few days before almost
  all of its members were killed or captured. When
  the shooting was over, 114 members of the brigade
  were dead and 1,189 had become Castro's
  prisoners. In Washington, the White House went
  into a brief period of shock. Kennedy recovered
  quickly, however, and made a statement
  acknowledging U.S. support for the invaders.

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• Days later he said that U.S. efforts to oust
  Castro with the Bay of Pigs invasion had been
  restrained, and that future U.S. action against
  the Cuban government might be more severe. The
  covert invasion of Cuba had been a foreign policy
  disaster, what one historian called "the perfect
  failure." It resulted in embarrassment for the
  Kennedy administration and provided Castro with a
  major issue with which to rally his people.

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• Kennedy later negotiated with Castro for the
  release of the commandos, who had been housed in
  a soccer stadium. In return for 53 million in
  food and medical supplies they were allowed to
  return to the U.S. Although Kennedy warned that
  he would continue to resist further Communist
  expansion in the Western Hemisphere, Castro
  continued to welcome Soviet aid.

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The Berlin Wall
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• In 1961 Nikita Khrushchev tried to stop the flow
  of refugees from East to West Berlin. Most were
  seeking freedom from Communist rule. These
  refugees were a sign to the West that the Easts
  Communist government was failing. Since the
  Berlin Airlift (11 years) almost 3 million East
  Germans had fled west. After a failed
  negotiation between JFK and Khrushchev, on August
  13 1961 East German troops began to seal off the
  border with barbed wire.

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• Within days the construction of a more permanent
  wall had begun. The wall and the armed guards
  were successful in reducing the exodus from the
  east to a trickle. It also became a very real
  symbol of the differences between Communism and
  our way of thinking. During the next 28 years
  approximately 5,000 people succeeded in escaping
  from the East, with 200 dying in the process.

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• This rope dangling from the lighted window of a
  building in East Berlin shows the escape route of
  an East Berlin family of five who slid down the
  rope to safety in 1964. The large number of
  people climbing over the Wall lead the East
  German government to outlaw rope and twine.

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• President John F. Kennedy stands on a platform
  looking over the Berlin Wall into the Eastern
  sector.

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• "There are some who say that Communism is the
  wave of the future. Let them come to
  Berlin."--President John F. Kennedy, Berlin,
  Germany, June 26, 1963

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The Cuban Missile Crisis
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• The Soviets liked having Castro as an ally, and
  Nikita Khrushchev promised to defend Cuba with
  Soviet arms. During the summer of 1962 the flow
  of Soviet weapons to Cuba included nuclear
  missiles. President Kennedy responded with a
  warning that we would not tolerate offensive
  nuclear weapons in Cuba. Then, on October 14 U-2
  planes took photos of Soviet missile bases in
  Cuba, some with missiles ready to fire!

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• On October 22 Kennedy informed the nation about
  the missiles and of his plan to get them removed.
  He made it clear that any missile attack from
  Cuba would trigger an all-out war on the Soviet
  Union. For the next six days the world faced the
  real possibility of a nuclear war as Soviet ships
  carrying more missiles headed toward Cuba while
  U.S. ships prepared a quarantine of the island.
  The U.S. also had 100,000 troops ready to invade
  Cuba.

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• In a contest to test who would back down first,
  the Soviets stopped their ships to avoid a
  confrontation at sea. Secretary of State Dean
  Rusk said We are eyeball to eyeball, and the
  other fellow just blinked. A few days later
  Khrushchev offered to remove the missiles in
  return for not invading Cuba. The U.S. also
  agreed to remove missiles from Turkey. The
  crisis was over.

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The New Frontier
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• In his acceptance speech as Democratic Candidate
  in 1960 John F. Kennedy promised the American
  people a New Frontier We stand at the edge of
  a New Frontier the frontier of unfulfilled
  hopes and dreams. It will deal with unsolved
  problems of peace and war, unconquered pockets of
  ignorance and prejudice, unanswered questions of
  poverty and surplus.  

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• Kennedy wanted to extend economic benefits to all
  citizens, but a razor-thin margin of victory
  limited his mandate. Even though the Democratic
  Party controlled both houses of Congress,
  conservative Southerners resisted plans to
  increase federal aid to education, provide health
  insurance for the elderly and create a new
  Department of Urban Affairs. And so, despite his
  rhetoric, Kennedy's policies were often limited
  and restrained.

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• Still, he did secure funding for a space program,
  and established the Peace Corps to send men and
  women overseas to assist developing countries in
  meeting their own needs. The president made some
  gestures toward civil rights leaders but did not
  until nearly the end of his presidency. He failed
  in his effort to aid public education and to
  provide medical care for the elderly. He gained
  only a modest increase in the minimum wage.

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The Kennedy Assassination
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• In the fall of 1963 public opinion polls showed
  that Kennedy was losing popularity, mostly
  because of his support for civil rights.
  President Kennedy went on a Texas trip to raise
  campaign funds and mend political fences among a
  fractured, Texas Democratic party. The president,
  and his wife, landed in Dallas on November 22,
  1963 and received a warm reception throughout the
  city.

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• Riding in an open-air limousine, with the
  governor and his wife, they noted the reception
  they were receiving. As the car approached the
  Texas School Book Depository, in Dealey Plaza,
  rifle shots rang out and Kennedy and Governor
  Connally were shot. Kennedys wound was fatal
  and Governor Connally was severely injured. Both
  were rushed to the hospital, but Kennedy never
  regained consciousness and died in a few hours.

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• The news of Kennedy's death was made official at
  148 PM. Legendary news anchor Walter Cronkite
  passed along word of the tragedy on television,
  and, uncharacteristically, nearly wept on camera.
  Later that day Vice President Lyndon Johnson was
  sworn in as the next president of the United
  States, with Mrs. Kennedy standing next to him
  (she was still wearing the blood-stained suit).

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• Immediately afterwards a citywide manhunt for
  Kennedy's assassin began in earnest. Lee Harvey
  Oswald, in his escape, killed a police officer
  and fled. He attempted to hide in the Texas
  Theatre by ducking into the building without
  paying. Police alerted nearby units to apprehend
  him as the suspected murderer of the patrolman.

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• Officers responded and arrested Oswald inside the
  theatre. While in custody, Oswald was charged
  with single-handedly assassinating Kennedy late
  in the evening on November 22. He denied shooting
  Kennedy to reporters, stating, "I didn't shoot
  anyone" and, "I'm just a patsy".

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• Two days later, long before Oswald could face
  trial, Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby fatally
  shot Oswald while he was being transferred to a
  different jail - while millions watched on
  national television. With the main
  suspect/witness to the crime now dead,
  investigators had a difficult time determining
  what really happened.

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• Monday, 25 November was a National Day of
  Mourning the country watched the funereal mass
  at St. Matthews Cathedral and the funeral
  procession across the Potomac River for burial at
  Arlington National Cemetery. Afterwards a
  controversial investigation by the Warren
  Commission in 1964 concluded that Oswald acted
  alone, but conspiracy theories continued to
  circulate.

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Lyndon Baines Johnson
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• By the time LBJ made it into the White House his
  ambition and drive had become legendary. He was
  a fourth-generation Texan and grew up in the dry
  hill country of Blanco County. LBJs first career
  was as a teacher at Sam Houston HS in Houston.
  At 26 he became the state director of the
  National Youth Administration, a New Deal Agency.
  In 1937 he was elected into the House of
  Representatives and was taken under the wing of
  FDR.

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• Johnson was a master of party politics and of
  behind-the-scenes maneuvering. Because of his
  success as a legislator JFK chose his as his
  running mate in 1960. After the Kennedy
  assassination Johnson addressed a joint session
  of Congress, it was only the fifth day of his
  administration. Johnson asked Congress to pass
  Kennedys civil rights and tax-break legislation,
  which were done to honor the fallen leader.

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• In addition to these successes LBJ also launched
  his War on Poverty. In August 1964 Congress
  enacted the Economic Opportunity Act which
  approved nearly 1 billion for youth programs,
  antipoverty measures, small business loans, and
  job training. To do this it created VISTA,
  Project Head Start, and the Community Action
  Program.

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• In 1964 the Republicans nominated Barry
  Goldwater, a conservative Senator from Arizona.
  He attacked the JFK/LBJ economic programs, Social
  Security, and even the TVA. He also hinted at
  using nuclear weapons in Cuba and North Vietnam,
  and was an advocate of sending U.S. troops to
  help support South Vietnam against the
  Communists. None of these ideas were very
  popular and LBJ won the election by a landslide.

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The Great Society

• In May 1964 Johnson had started to push his
  program to end poverty and racial injustice in
  America, the Great Society. He saw his
  legislation as just the beginning. This would
  create not only a higher standard of living and
  equal opportunity, but also promote a richer
  quality of life for all. Like his idol FDR, LBJ
  wanted to change America.

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• Your imagination, your initiative and your
  indignation will determine whether we build a
  society where progress is the servant of our
  needs, or a society where old values and new
  visions are buried under unbridled growth.

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• LBJ saw education as the key to the Great
  Society. He got the Elementary and Secondary
  Education Act of 1965 passed, which provided more
  than 1 billion in federal aid to help schools
  purchase textbooks and new library materials.
  This was the first major aid package for
  education in American history. Other important
  elements of the Great society included the
  creation of the Department of Housing and Urban
  Development.

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• HUD built 240,000 units of low-rent public
  housing, helped other Americans pay for better
  housing, and appointed the first African-American
  Cabinet member, Robert Weaver.
• Immigration laws also changed under the Great
  Society. The Immigration Act of 1965 opened the
  door for many non-Europeans to immigrate to the
  U.S. by ending the quota system based on
  nationality.

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• The Great Society addressed the environment by
  getting the Water Quality Act of 1965 passed.
  This law required the states to clean up their
  rivers to help improve the quality of Americas
  drinking water. LBJ also ordered the government
  to find the worst chemical polluters ( mainly
  chemical and oil companies) and make them
  clean-up and reduce their pollution.

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• The Cuyahoga River (Cleveland, Ohio) was so
  polluted that it started on fire in 1952 and 1969

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• Consumer protection laws also came under the
  umbrella of the Great Society. Ralph Nader made
  his mark by pushing the U.S. automobile industry
  to make safer cars. Congress reacted by making
  higher standards for cars and tires. Congress
  also passed the Wholesome Meat Act of 1967 to
  raise government standards for inspecting meat
  and to bring higher quality products to the
  consumers.

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Car companies resisted the introduction of safety
features, like seat belts! One of the main
targets of Naders book was the Corvair, which
had a suspension that made it liable to roll
over.
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Medicare/Medicaid

• Finally, the Great Society was aimed at improving
  Social Security by including health benefits.
  Medicare provided hospital insurance and low-cost
  medical insurance for almost every American over
  the age of 65. It is partially paid for through
  Social Security taxes. Medicaid extended health
  insurance to welfare recipients and is funded by
  the federal government and the states.

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The Warren Court
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• The wave of liberal reform that characterized the
  Great Society also swept through the Supreme
  Court in the 1960s. Beginning with the landmark
  decision Brown v. Board of Education (1954),
  which ruled that segregation in public schools
  was unconstitutional, Chief Justice Earl Warren
  took an activist stance on the leading issues of
  the day. The Court also reapportioned the
  congressional districts to reflect the changes in
  America.

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• Other Warren Court decisions include
• Mapp v. Ohio (1961) said that illegally seized
  evidence could not be used in state courts.
• Gideon v. Wainright (1963) required criminal
  courts to provide free legal counsel for those
  that could not afford it.
• Escobedo v. Illinois (1964) ruled that the
  accused have the right to have counsel present
  when they are being questioned.

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• Miranda v. Arizona (1966) ruled that all suspects
  must be read their rights before they could be
  questioned.
• These rulings were very controversial, and
  divided the public. Liberals praised these
  decisions because they protected the accused.
  Conservatives argued that these decisions would
  make it too difficult for the police to do their
  jobs and said the liberals were soft on crime.

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• The Great Society and the Warren Court changed
  the U.S. People still disagree whether these
  changes were good or bad, but all agree that LBJ
  extended the power of the government more than
  any president after FDR. The War on Poverty was
  effective at first, the of Americans in poverty
  dropped from 21 to 11. Johnsons tax cuts
  helped the economy, but many of LBJs
  achievements are overshadowed by Vietnam.